Articles in IEEE Spectrum
Biofluids Fuel Microrockets
Chemistry teachers with a flair for the dramatic sometimes throw pure sodium into a body of water, causing a reaction that blows the sodium back out of the water and blows their students’ minds. Engineer …
Polite Robot Overlords Will Be More Persuasive
Baking cupcakes can be as much a matter of social interaction as it is a mechanical exercise. Never is this more true than when your kitchen partner is a robot. Their always-right, ego-deflating advice can …
Robot to Human: ‘Trust Me’
In a crisis control center, several teams of firefighters in Montelibretti, Italy, used laptops to guide a robotic ground vehicle into a smoke-filled highway tunnel. Inside, overturned motorcycles, errant cars, and spilled pallets impeded the …
Plugging In to Plant Roots
Cast-off electrons in a plant’s roots can provide electricity, a Dutch team reports. Now, through a spin-off company, it hopes to grow grassy generators on rooftops and promote decentralized electrical production in wetlands in developing …
